


Luck of the Draw

by Sunny_Trin



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Occult, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-04
Updated: 2015-11-18
Packaged: 2017-12-25 13:59:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/953931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunny_Trin/pseuds/Sunny_Trin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryou Bakura has been away from England for many years. Now 28, he seeks to return, and finds employment as the Divination Professor of a certain magical school...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Returning to London

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [History of Magic](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/26989) by Lizeth. 
  * Inspired by [The New Students](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/26990) by White Angel Chan. 



> Just as a heads-up, it's been a really long time since I've watched Yu-Gi-Oh! and I don't obsess about it the way I used to. If the character backgrounds seem a little off, I do apologize. 
> 
> I started writing this a long time ago and my computer crashed and I lost almost all of it. So to prevent that from happening, I'm uploading chapters as I go, rather than attempting to finish it and then upload it. That being said, this is very much a work in progress.

Ryou breathed in the salty, London air with relish. /Good to be home?/  
  
Ryou smiled. //Yes. And you?//  
  
Ryou could feel the melancholic humor from the voice in his head. /My home is far from here and long since gone. I never liked London./  
  
Ryou sighed. He knew why Bakura had such mixed feelings about London. It had been a rocky road for both of them. He’d always been a weird child and the fact that they had moved around a lot as children hadn’t helped to endear Ryou to the local children. Bakura, when he’d arrived, hadn’t been happy. After a short burst of confusion and anger, looking for a priesthood to divorce himself from the object that he’d been tied to, he’d taken to protecting his host instead.  
  
Of course, for Bakura, that hadn’t meant hiding away, like most of the Pharaoh’s gang had assumed on their first meeting. It’d meant filling the young psychic in on everything. On the power he held as a wielder, on the world that was out there, on what magic was, and on how to defend himself.  
  
Of course, they’d had a falling-out. Bakura’s idea of defending themself was different than Ryou’s. Ryou was taking the more passive route. As a child, he didn’t believe in shedding blood, not for any reason. As a thousand-year-old spirit, Bakura was less inclined to be polite to the children abusing his host.  
  
They’d fought a lot, and the pharaoh hadn’t helped matters much. Their relationship wasn’t exactly healthy for several years. Ryou was torn between helping his childhood friend and doing the right thing, and Bakura was torn between vengeance for his family and loyalty to his new host. But eventually they worked things out when they’d gotten some distance on all the old faces.  
And after years of running –running from the past, and running from each other, and running from the law at times even –they’d come here. Ryou couldn’t bear to be away from everything for so long, even if Bakura seemed to be comfortable with it. And England was the only other place where they’d both been honest.  
  
Bakura had called ahead and made an arrangement with a rather unscrupulous character. They’d found a flat on the edge of a rather sketchy part of town, but for a no-questions-asked deal, it would suffice.  
  
Ryou and Bakura couldn’t afford any nosy neighbors checking up on them. Even discounting the trouble they’d gotten into in Japan, there were still a couple of unsolved murders in England that could be traced to a certain white-haired derelict. And that wasn’t even counting the hordes of fairy gold said derelict had managed to steal under the noses of some fairly powerful dark wizards.  
So perhaps returning to the shady part of town wasn’t the best idea. But fortunately no one in the wizarding world knew their faces. Well, no one but one person.  
  
But before he set up shop, he needed to make some preparations. The magic deck he’d been using was useful, but unfortunately, well-known. And while it was entirely possible that Magic and Wizards was not as popular in England, that just made it all the more dangerous. After all, who would be using a Japanese deck but the Japanese stranger who’d just rolled into town?  
  
Of course, the creatures in the shadow realm weren’t bound only by the images on the card, and in theory, Bakura would have been able to summon anything he chose. The problem was focus. This removed from shadow magic, it was hard to draw out anything without a clear picture to focus on, and decks provided wonderful opportunity.  
  
And with that in mind, Ryou tapped into the power of the Ring, looking for any hotspots of occult. His ring led him to one little book shop that ended up not having quite what he was looking for. The second proved to be more fruitful. It was a small bookshop, but it had a new age section in the back. He concentrated on what he wanted, and brushed a hand over the decks of tarot cards. There weren’t many there, but two ended up resonating with him. One was strongly elemental, while the other was highly symbolic. He chose the elemental deck, opening it up and glancing at the card he could see. This would do.  
  
He hesitated a moment, debating on whether or not he should pay for it. With his partner, Bakura, he’d gotten accustomed to not paying for things; furthermore, the small amount of money he had meant he couldn’t afford lavish expenditures. But he decided that this, at the very least, was worth paying for. Tarot decks were highly sensitive to their surroundings. Paying money for the deck would solidify it as his, whereas stealing it had the potential to cause mistrust.  
  
After he paid, he left, walking quickly, calling out to the ring to guide him back to the Leaky Cauldron. Then he took the deck out of the box. He removed the hair tie he had around his bushy locks and tied it around the deck –first horizontal, then vertical. Normally, Ryou would not treat a deck so roughly. In this particular case, however… he needed the deck to bond with him quickly, and as he would not be using it for divination, there would be no concern that so much contact with his DNA would taint the results. Hair ties were one of the ways that a practitioner could do this, as it would keep the deck contained, but also provide it with a constant link to his signature.  
  
Wandering around London to find this deck had taken an hour and a half. Walking back had not taken as long. Ryou checked his watch. There would be no point in going to his little flat only to leave again. He’d scheduled a meeting with an old friend the moment he’d known he would be returning. So he decided to head to the tavern where he’d scheduled the meeting. Though he was early, this would be a grand opportunity to get to know the deck better. So, ordering a cup of tea, he removed the deck from his pocket. He didn’t use it to read, but examined each one, and made sure to touch them in turn. With his hands came tendrils of shadow magic, probing in a different way that revealed more than his eyes could.  
  
The major arcana proved to carry more power than he’d anticipated, though in a distinctly different manner from the rest of the deck. They were less elemental, and seemed to serve some purpose relating to the function they would have had symbolically. The Hanged Man, for example, held a similar energy to Swords of Revealing Light. He would have to examine this arcana further, perhaps even experiment, so that he knew their function. The minor arcana, however, was rather straightforward. Each suit corresponded with one of the four elements, and grew in strength as the numbers increased. The Ace of Swords was only strong enough to produce a small light, but the King of Swords would create a ferocious, burning creature, strong enough, hot enough, and liquid enough to be quite similar to lava.  
  
He’d worked out the Hanged Man, the Tower, the Sun, the Chariot, and the Hierophant by the time his comrade arrived. He hastily put the deck back as she approached.


	2. Drinks at the Leaky Cauldron

She looked older. That was the first thing Ryou thought. It had only been five years, but Minerva McGonagall seemed much older now. He greeted her warmly, remembering the days when they’d met, and bonded over chess matches. She smiled as warmly as she seemed able, but the warmth that had been there five years ago had seemed to dim.

“Let’s get down to business then, shall we? From what I understand, the work I was doing for you before is no longer available, yes?” As Bakura spoke, he waved for Minerva to sit, before sitting himself.

Minerva nodded. Her lips thinned. “You always were a serious boy.”

Bakura’s lips thinned as well. “Not a boy any longer, Minerva.”

“No, not a child. It’s only been five years, but you’ve certainly grown Ryou.” As if remembering herself, Minerva clapped shortly. “But you’re right, down to business.”

Ryou waved at a passing waitress. “I almost forgot my manners. Surely you’d like something to drink. Tea, if nothing else.”

Minerva accepted, though with little grace. But Ryou insisted. The drinks would help relax the setting.

After taking a sip, Minerva began, “You are indeed correct. The chess set was splendid, but I certainly don’t have need for another. What other areas of expertise do you have?”

“My skills with the chess set can be applied to other objects as well. I am highly skilled in the magic behind the animation of inanimate objects. I know you have many enchanted suits of armor as well as some moving statues. If any are in disrepair, it would be well within my venue to repair them.”

Minerva sipped as she thought, gaze heavy on the place his deck had been. “Ryou. If I may. What was that item you had before I arrived.”

He shrugged and took the deck out. “It’s no secret. I was familiarizing myself with a new deck. The animation magic does play into it some, but even as a child , I always had an affinity for Divination magics, so it’s a good compromise.”

/It is a secret. You want this woman to know all the tricks up our sleeve?/ He heard the hissed sibilants of his yami hissing in his ear. 

//Hush. Minerva will hardly betray us.//

“May I?” Minerva asked, reaching for the deck.

He withdrew slightly, but splayed several cards out. “Look, but don’t touch. As I said, we’re getting used to each other, he and I, and tarot decks are incredibly sensitive. They read the magic signature of the person touching them like an embedded fingerprint, and I need it to recognize me above all others.”

Minerva glanced up, and Ryou could see the surprise on her face. “Well, my boy, that’s more than I’ve learned about Divination than any of the years of… camaraderie, we’ll say, with our own Divination professor. I’d always assumed… well. You make it sound like…”

She trailed off again, and Ryou smiled. “Like a legitimate field of magic? It is. The problem is that only some can ever be proficient at it. Yes, you can learn the theory. But theory will never allow someone without the Sight to Divine anything, tools or no.”

He could see the gears in her head turning rapidly. “It just so happens, Ryou, that the climate here has been changing for the worse. Sybill Trelawney had been teaching Divination these past many years, but due to some unfortunate circumstances recently, I worry for her safety. Nothing to do with you, mind, or the school, but she is a famous witch, descended from Cassandra Trelawney, and there are those who would take advantage of her. I’ve been pressuring the headmaster to set her up in a safe house, and I think your presence may help. Let me speak to the Headmaster and see what he says about instituting you as a Divination professor.”

He threw his hands up defensively. “I don’t want to steal someone else’s job. Surely, Minerva, we can come to a mutually beneficial arrangement. 

She snorted. “Believe me, this would be beneficial for all parties involved. You don’t have the understanding of the castle that I do. Let me speak to the Headmaster, and with either outcome, we’ll work something out.”

In the end, he nodded, smiling. “I agree. It would be mutually beneficial. Though I do have a couple of side-ventures. Things I can’t exactly put down right now. How much time, do you think? I will need some time to myself.”

She nodded. “The schedule is fairly flexible. We can discuss particulars once I have the Headmaster’s approval.”

//See? Sometimes what I want and what you want overlap.// Ryou nudged the thought towards the being in his mind. Bakura snorted. 

/They overlap far more than you let yourself think, hikari./

Bakura would go stir-crazy if he didn’t have some time to himself. Time to cause mischief. They’d made a handful of connections from their previous stays in England, but probably not more than the keeper of the Hog’s Head would recognize him. Either way, if they were going to be posted at the school, Bakura reminded him, they would need a new moniker. Even if he’d been careful to keep his image hidden with his shadier jobs, there was no mistaking the shock of white hair, and the oddly-accented English. Two white-haired foreigners showing up at the same time wouldn’t do at all.

//All of those prior connections, dashed.// Bakura complained, but Ryou could tell that the grumbling was half-hearted at best. Not going by their previous identity in the shadier parts of town meant that they could filter their jobs better. After all, when Bakura had been here last, he hadn’t exactly been shy about getting his hands dirty. 

Ryou shook Minerva’s hand again, telling her that he would have to make some freelance connections in town, and that they’d connect again after she heard from the Headmaster.  
“I’ll owl you.” She said matter-of-factly. And though Ryou had only just moved in to the derelict flat located above an apothecary, he nodded. The owl’s magic would be able to track him, he knew.

**Author's Note:**

> This one's a short chapter, to give you a taste. Let me know what you think.


End file.
